Well that is darn interesting. My estimation of your qualities as a historian have now risen a notch. There is, however, one important point missing with Dirck’s position on historians commenting on current events in a comparative manner. Where he says “Worse, I think it risks turning our profession into nothing more than a witting tool for the political exigencies of the moment.” he should have mentioned that most commentary of the kind that he is speaking of is mainly eisegesis.